It wasn’t until another teacher noticed the blood that Dorthea Oatts realized she had been stabbed.

The language arts teacher at Pines Middle School, at 200 N. Douglas Road in Pembroke Pines, was trying to break up a fight between two eighth-grade girls. One of the girls, armed with a pair of scissors, started swinging and hit Oatts and two other students.

By the end of the scuffle, the teacher would need nine stitches to close her left shoulder wound.

Three days later, Oatts says she’s still recovering and not sure when she’ll be back with her students.

“I’m still in pain, but it’s getting better,” she said Monday. “Two days ago, I was in bed most of the day. I can go a couple hours and then I start feeling sick, pain or whatever.”

The stabbing happened around 9 a.m. Friday. A bell had just rung for students to go to class when teachers noticed a crowd forming down the hall. Fearing a fight could erupt, a teacher called security.

“Shortly after that, I heard screaming sounds and I just followed it and that’s when I saw the two girls fighting, pulling hair,” Oatts said.

A school resource officer arrested the girl with the scissors, who was later taken to a juvenile assessment center. That girl, whose name has not been released by police due to her age, is facing expulsion.

The other unidentified girl in the fight was stabbed in her shoulder and taken to a hospital. She is expected to recover, police said.

A boy attempting to break up the fight was treated at the school by firefighters for a cut to his hand.

Oatts figures many of her students have already heard about what happened and is hoping to get the situation behind her so she can focus on preparing her students for upcoming tests.

“That’s something that you never know if that will happen again. It’s just one of those things,” Oatts said. “You just never know.”